Montjuic and Passeig de Gracia- Barcelona, May 16, 2009

Some more of our great Saturday in Barcelona... these pictures are taken along and off of the Avenida Diagonal, one of the widest avenues of the city, it crosses the entire city diagonally until it reaches the sea. But there again were these beautiful buildings lining the streets, with these fantastic balconies and great architectural details.





Chris was fascinated with Obelisks that were in squares and plazas everywhere we went, often stolen from other places that they conquered. This may be the first of many pictures of obelisks to come...




These are of La Pedrera along the famous Passeig de Gracia, a street rich with architectural history and now lined with expensive stores and nice sidewalk cafes. La Pedrera, also known as Casa Mila, is one of Gaudi's most free works and was constructed between 1906 and 1910. This was his last civil work before he devoted himself exclusively to Sagrada Familia. The owners of the property, Roser Segimon and Pere Mila, wanted a spectacular residential building of great social importance. The main floor was to be occupied by the owning family and the rest of the apartments were to be rented. The sheer size and originality of the project meant that the house was often caricatured in the newspapers and magazines of it's day, to which it owes it's nickname, Pedrera means "quarry." The house was located on the main thoroughfare of the time, Paseo de Gracia, where a large number of Modernist houses and even the current street lamps and pavements are evocative of this style.




Las Casa Battlo, with it's roof of coloured ceramic scales, is one of the most charismatic buildings in the Ensanche quarter and one of Gaudi's most characteristic works, although he reformed an older building dating from 1875, redone between 1904, and 1906. He transformed the entire facade, ground floor, courtyard, and attics. The highly original facade is topped by ceramic tiles reminiscent of fish scales, in a rhythmic pattern that is said to resemble the backbone of a dragon. It is flanked by Casa Amatller, and Casa Lleo Morera which together form the Block of Discord, because of the architectural contrasts between the three buildings and three leading architects of that period, and from the varying opinions of people who prefer one work over another. These architects worked at the service of a bourgeoisie who wanted to be different and wished to be recognized as the owners of such singular and striking buildings.




This is the front of a little cafe that we ate along the Rambla Catalunya. We had the most fantastic little ham sandwich on a crusty baguette, and some Horchata which as it turns out is not nearly as good as Mexican Horchata. We actually ate on the sidewalk under the umbrellas that line every sidewalk cafe and are all over the town. (Sorry, don't know why I don't have a picture of what I'm talking about...) But it fascinated us that these large areas of sidewalk cafes were serviced by these tiny little storefront restaurants, often with just one waiter running in and out and obviously working very hard!



This is the University of Barcelona, and another grand example of the amazing architecture that was everywhere we looked. This was close to our hotel and we walked past often multiple times a day during our trip and became our own personal landmark.



After wandering the streets of the Gothic Quarter, we hopped back on our double decker bus for the tour of the other side of the city (it has two routes) where we headed up Montjuic, a beautiful "mountain" just outside town. It is home to some beautiful gardens (Jardins de Miramar), the Olympic Stadium from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the MNAC or National Art Museum in the Palau Nacional (National Palace), Poble Espanyol (Spanish Village), and Plaza de Espanya at the base with the beautiful water fountains which were unfortunately not turned on yet??



The Olympic ring of Montjuic was the focal point and main sporting area of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. The stadium is a restored building that originally dated back to 1929, and of which only the facade remained, with the interior being fully refurbished.



The views of the city from the grounds around the National Palace high atop Montjuic were breathtaking. It was fun to pick out many of the landmarks that we had recently visited too. We could easily see Torre Agbar and La Sagrada Familia, and I think you can even see Tibidabo in the distance to the left, and the Mediterranean to the right.




These were taken by the MNAC, one of the biggest museums in the city which houses the best collection of Romanesque wall paintings in the world. Like so many of the other beautiful buildings of the city, most of the facade was covered in scaffolding.




More fantastic views of the city... gotta love it!





This was a great area for some fun architectural and view pictures. And every once in awhile, we remembered to squeeze ourselves into a fabulous armlength shot!




Even if the facade was covered in scaffolding, you can see some of the great detail on this building from this shot of one of the towers of the National Palace.




Here's Chris patiently waiting at our bus stop to get on to the next fabulous place.